Dangerous Clockwork
by Galateia Erle
Summary: ...all I know is that I heard your voice, calling out to me from the emptiness. It was you, Syaoran, who woke me up. It was you who gave me a life worth living. I don't remember anything else, except you... so don't let me drift back into the darkness..."


Disclaimer: As you all know, the possibility of me owning something as wonderful as CCS is next to impossible, so please don't bother to mention copyright laws to me, as I will, without warning, rip your face off. and, therefore continue to, revel in your blood. Have a nice day.

A/N: AU ficcy. It was originally a story line I had intended to turn into my own manga, but am lacking the time and tools to draw it all out with my own characters, so, I've decided to just turn it into a ficcy for the time being. I hope you enjoy it! And please, make me happy and let me know what you think!

Flames are welcome!

Dangerous Clockwork  
CHAPTER 1  
Waking

_+Ping...+_

_Where am I?_

_+Ping...+_

_This sound... I know this sound..._

_+Ping...+_

_Who's there? Who's calling me? _

_+Ping...+_

_The sound is growing softer... wait... please don't leave..._

_+Ping...+_

_Don't... leave... This sensation. I feel like im being pulled by something... no, someone. Someone whom I know very well..._

_+Ping...+_

_Someone who knows me equally as well... I..._

RUR! RUR! RUR! RUR+

Sirens...

"Emergency! Emergency!"

"What is it station A! Did something happen to the subject!"

"Her heart! The heart rate just sky rocketed!"

"What!"

"Emergency! Emergency!"

"Now what is it! Did something else happen, Station B!"

"We're picking up brain waves!"  
"Are you sure!"

"Yes! Positive! But it doesn't make any sense! All of her neuro connections are firing off! I've never seen anything like it before! They're all just spontaneously going off at once!"

"Shit! What's your status station C!"

"Blood pressure is increasing! It's... It's off the charts!"  
"Well, DO something about it, dammit! Or we'll lose her!"

Silence befell the small underground lab. Each technition, clad in white lab coats, blankly stared at their screens, sweat running down their faces and necks. The over head siren, with it's flashing red lights, suddenly came to a halt. The cold room was still.

Gulping down the saliva build-up in her mouth, the lead scientist second in command of the project, looked about her, shakily. The cold concrete floor had been littered with knocked over office styled chairs from the shocking, but brief, commotion. The large monitors and machines continued to hum quietly, some printing off long rolls of coded information, readable only to the trained eye.

What the hell was going on?

She looked around the dimly lit room nervously, her gold locks of hair swishing back and forth, a few strands sticking to the sweat on her face.

"Well! What happened! Status report station A!"

The three men huddled around their post looked up from the screen nervously.

"Her... her heart rate has returned to normal..." spoke one of the brave souls.

"Station B and C! Report!"

"Neuro patterns have... just suddenly..."

"Suddenly what? Speak up man!"

"Suddenly... stopped." the tall black haired man said, as he removed his glasses from his sweaty face in disbelief.

The woman looked to the other station, expectantly.

"Blood pressures normal, ma'am."

The woman gave a large sigh of relief as she rested the back of her hand over her forehead, wiping the small amount of sweat from it. Good, things were back to normal... but what just happened? At least, the subject was still alive and undamaged... hopefully. There was no room for failure.

"Ma'am! You have to see this!"

The woman looked in the direction of the voice. One of her fellow workers stood next to the large tank, containing the subject at hand.

Quickening her step, she quickly strode up to the tank and peered in at the girl.

Within the tank was a girl whom looked to be in her teens. Her rich, lustrous golden brown hair floating gently in the water around her curled up nude body. Eyebrows furrowing slightly then relaxing, fluttering eyelids opened to reveal two emerald eyes in a sleepy manner. Small bubbles escaped her mouth as her jaw opened slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words.

"This... we... I mean... someone should go get the boss..." she said, almost in a whisper from shock, eyes still locked on the subject at hand. After five years of continuous monitoring, study, watch... the girl they had found sealed away was finally awakening. She rested the palm of her white hand onto the tanks curved smooth glass surface. So, finally... their efforts had reached fruition. She was sure to receive a bonus for this!

* * *

Morning sunlight flooded down through the living room windows of a small apartment composed of a kitchen, bathroom, living room, and two rooms. The sound of sizzling eggs emitted from the kitchen as a woman in her twenties stood there, fixing her own breakfast.

Meanwhile, the sound of the TV echoed from the living room. The news was on. A tall, broad shouldered man decked in an expensive black suit with a purple turtleneck emerged out of a black limo, adjusting his shades onto the bridge of his 'hump-backed' nose. His short dark hair kept in place with gel, but not slicked back.

Flashes from cameras shot his profile as he stood tall and proud as the media surrounded him, bombarding him with question upon question about his newly discovered ruins found in Egypt from his privately owned excavation team.

"Why do you bother to watch that junk? It's not like it's going to help you in your studies." came the voice from the kitchen.

A tall boy, 17 years in age, with deep amber eyes and burnt umber hair, shrugged. His build was that of a 5'11 teen in high school. Muscle was evident, but not to the extent of being compared to a body builder. He had a sweatband around his forehead, moving his hair out of his eyes, as he munched on some toast. He shifted in his seat, his black pants twisting even more around his legs, uncomfortably. Small crumbs from his toast littered the front of his white button up shirt and red tie. He sat on the light grey floor in front of the couch.

"Does it really matter what I watch? Besides, it might come in handy some day. And some of it's interesting. Maybe if you watched it, you'd learn something too!"

"Syaoran!"

Syaoran found himself bending forward a little as something whizzed past the back of his head. He couldn't help but grin, his eyes fixated on the TV as the girl stalked out of the kitchen, walked past him, and pulled the knife she threw at him out of the wall. This was routine basically by now.

"Great. Now look what you made me do! I'll have to get that repaired now!"

Syaoran chuckled. "Reap what you sow, Xi Xi."

Xi Xi stood behind him, staring down at the top of his brown head, glaring.

"I swear! If you weren't my cousin, I would have murdered you by now."

Xi Xi was in her late twenties. She stood at 5'5 and had ebony black hair that reached her tail bone. Her eyes were a glassy blue.

Syaoran fell back, head landing on her feet.

"Still going along with the whole 'cousin' thing? I thought I told you stop calling me that. At least around the house."

She placed her hands on her hips, knife still in hand. She glared down at him.

"Well, what else can I say! If I just tell people im letting some punk kid live here without cause, they'd think I was doing something illegal! And if I just stop around the house, it might slip out somewhere! What if someone's eavesdropping?"

Syaoran stuck his tongue out. "You're too paranoid. Oh, and may I suggest that you wear different underwear? Pink polkadots don't suit you." He grinned after stating this.

Fury is what she was. Face boiling red with rage as she dropped the knife and shoved her hands between her legs, in an attempt to conceal her underwear with a fold of her black knee-length skirt.

"Pervert!" she yelled, pulling one foot out from under his head and kicking him in the head with it. He replied by jolting up, hunching over, and cradling his head in his arms, a small knot swelling on his head as his eyes grew watery at the corners.

He whipped around, angry and glaring while rubbing the sore spot on his head with his right hand. "What'd ya do that for! I was just telling you the truth!"

"I don't need your opinion about my underwear!"

"Well excuse me for not lying to you!"

He glared at her retreating figure as she returned to the kitchen. Rubbing the back of his head and wincing, he kept his glare on her.

"Cranky old hag..."

"I heard that!"

"Hmph..."

_"So, deep within the ruins that you uncovered in Egypt, did you find the 'celestial body' the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics spoke of outside of the newly discovered temple?"_

_"No, im afraid we didn't. We feel that someone had beaten us to it. After all, part of it had been uncovered before we even got there. Or, the writings could be referring to a 'God' like Anubis or something of that sort. Perhaps even a constellation."_

Sudden flashes from cameras highlighted his face once again, as he gave a toothy smile towards the camera, waving slightly as he attempted to push his way through the media.

Angrily, Syaoran got up, dusted himself off, and grabbed his black leather school bag sitting idly next to the sofa. Without bothering to say goodbye or turn off the TV, he headed for the door, shoved his feet into his school shoes, and ripped his school uniform coat off of the hanger and tossed it over his shoulder before storming out.

Well, today was going to be a great day!

* * *

Somewhat cooled off by now, Syaoran walked slowly, taking his time, down the Tokyo sidewalk, blending with the crowd as usual. His everyday routine. He still received funny looks. Mostly because of the red headband around his head just advertising his weirdness. He mentally shrugged. Not like their opinions ruled his life, unlike Xi Xi's. He stuck his tongue out again at the thought. Sometimes, she really was a handful. You'd think that by her age, she would have gained some wisdom. But nope. She was just like a little high school kid.

Coming to the corner of a walk way, he merged and began to blend into the crowd, all waiting for the 'walk' signal to light up on the other side of the street.

_'Ugh... I hate living here. Same routine day after day. Get up, get dressed, eat, go to school, come back from school, go home, homework, eat, shower, sleep... I wish my life would just spicen up a little... kind of like back then...'_

His face scrunched up at his last thoughts. 'like back then'. No, back then was worse. Why would he wish for such a thing?

_'Im never going back there... ever.'_

Syaoran felt his eyes drift upwards towards the lazy white cumulus clouds in the bright blue sky, his arms folded behind his head as he did this while he clutched his bag in his right. He wore his school coat now, but didn't bother to button it up.

Clouds had it much better... they could drift wherever they pleased, all day, all night, all the time... If only he had that luxury.

Slowly, the sounds of hurried whispers brought him back to reality. He looked around him. The faces of the crowd were panicked, mixed with shock and fear. He noticed a pair of girls huddled together, whispering hurriedly while one pointed in the direction of the commotion. Eyes following the direction of the pointed finger, he then knew what the all of excitement was about.

Up ahead, not anywhere near a walk light, was a girl around his age, wearing what looked to be a white lab coat and no shoes or socks or anything else for that matter. Her hair extended to her knees, swishing back and forth as she moved. Her hair moved enough to hide her face from view.. She looked as if she was being distracted by something as she had her hands up in front of her face, arms extended, walking/jogging in a bouncy fashion. Almost in a fairy like way. Oddly enough, there was nothing in front of her. At least, he didn't see anything...

_'What the heck is she doing? She looks like an idiot...'_

He watched for a brief moment more until small little warning signals shot off in his head.

He felt his legs automatically move on their own accord towards the girl as he noticed that she was headed straight for the onslaught of traffic headed her way. Too panicked for her safety, just as he would for anyone else, he raced ahead, ignoring the 'Do Not Walk' sign, nearly getting hit in the process.

Time seemed to slow for that brief moment as he drew close and closer to her, and he did close the gap between them, time grew slower and slower, but the traffic around them kept moving at their normal pace.

Suddenly, she was out in traffic, and he, just a few short yards behind her, found himself entering the traffic as well.

"LOOK OUT!"

It wasn't the smartest thing to say at that moment, or even effective at that, but as soon as the words left his mouth, he found himself moving at a normal speed again, as if time had suddenly sped up. Perhaps he should have said that before running after her?

The girl stopped, oblivious to the traffic, and was about to turn around to see where the voice had come from when a sudden weight slammed into her from behind and she was thrown to the other side of the street.

Two bodies were jerked and slammed into the cement walkway on the other side of the street, rolling until they came to a halt.

"God dammit... ugh, this just isn't my day..." came the words from her rescuer in a low pained voice, eyes shut tight from the throbbing pain in his head from having his head jerked around as his body took the blow from the impact for both of them onto the cement. He still had his arm around her waist as she laid on top of him until she lifted her upper body off of his, which caused him to release her and move his arm under himself until he was resting on his elbow. Rubbing his head with his free hand, he proceeded to open his eyes, still squinting, until he noticed the over cast shadow on him and the weight on his thighs.

Syaoran looked up and found himself staring dangerously close to the face of the girl he had just saved. Large green orbs stared curiously down into his own, her long locks of hair brushing the sides of her face and his as they swayed gently in the air. Time seemed to just stand still for that moment.

Suddenly, nearby voices of gossipers brought the teen back to reality, for the second time that day. Blood began to pump into his face quickly as he felt a hot blush coming on.

"Um... could you get off me now?" he asked, trying to keep a calm composure.

The girl just stayed where she was, staring, with an almost confused look, directly into his eyes.

Automatically, his arms moved up and gripped her shoulders, pushing her back until she was off of him. He felt awkward doing this, especially since he could feel the stares of onlookers.

Growing agitated, he barked, "What are you staring at!"

A few people looked nervous, and began to move along, eyes still glued to the scene though.

"Yeah, that's right. Keep moving." he growled, while glaring enough at the people to cause them to look away in fright from his piercing gaze.

"Assholes..." he muttered. The scene from earlier hit him in the face as he remembered what he had just done. Turning his glare towards the girl, hands still gripping her shoulders, he gave her a small shake.

"And what's your problem! Are you trying to get yourself killed! Are you an idiot or something!"

He gave a few more small shakes, but she kept her curious gaze on him. This act just made him more agitated and nervous. Made him feel almost like a specimen under a microscope.

"Arg. Forget it!" he said in a huff, pushing her roughly back as he pushed himself up then extended a hand to help her up. She stared at the hand for a moment before putting hers in it and was jerkily pulled to her feet.

"Anyways, are you ok?" he finally asked, toning his voice down to a softer level.

She smiled.

"I take it that that's a yes. So, what the hell were you doing, wandering out into traffic like that anyways! I have a right to know, since I risked my own ass for yours!"

By this time, the girl's attention was on the people around them. Syaoran sweatdropped.

"Now you're... ignoring me...arrrggg..." He felt himself grow agitated as he scratched his head furiously with his hands, his hair ruffled enough to make him look like a bed head.

Off in the distance, he heard a few gruff voices suddenly shouting in their direction.

"Look! There! There she is!"

"Where? I don't see her!"

"There you numbskull!"

"Oh! I see her!"  
"C'mon! We have to get her back to the lab, or we'll lose our heads!"

Looking in the direction of the voices, he saw a trio of men dressed in black suits, ties, and dark glasses start running towards them, gruffly pushing their way through the crowds of people. Expectantly, Syaoran turned towards the girl. She was completely oblivious to the approaching men. Looking back and forth between the men and girl, a rising sensation of thrill mixed in with heavy caution befell him.

Without thought, he grasped her hand in his and took off down the street. The girl found herself being whipped around and running behind her rescuer down the street. Next thing they heard, "Look! She's getting away! After her!"

Yup. So they WERE after her.

"C'mon! This way!" Syaoran shouted behind him, as he jerked her into an alley way between two newly build buildings.

No... this place wasn't safe either and the walls weren't porous enough to create enough friction for him to get to the top of the buildings...

He looked around frantically as he pulled her behind him at a running pace. No ladders or stairs, or anything!

_'Shit...'_ He mentally cursed as they exited that alley and into another behind the buildings. They ran along, passing other alleys, but as soon as he took a turn into one, Syaoran screeched to a stop, the girl bumping into the back of him. At the other end of the alley was one of the men in black. All three of them exchanged surprised glances.

"Whoops! Wrong turn!" he breathed, before turning on his heel and tugging the girl with him.

"Halt! Stop!" came the voice of the unidentified man.

"Just ignore him!" Syaoran gasped, growing a bit tired of playing tag. There had to be a way out of this

situation! He felt his hand being pulled back. The girl was out of breath already.

"Great..." he sighed, as he turned down another alley. He was headed to the other end when another man in black whizzed by, catching a glance of them, and backtracking until he was coming down the alley and at them.

"SHIT!" Syaoran found himself turning around again and pulling himself and the girl out of the alley way.

"There they are!" It was the first agent they had run into.

Eyes frantically searching for a way out of the situation, he saw at the end of the alley, just happened to be in the direction they were headed, was the third agent. Rolling his eyes as he made a sharp turn down an alley, which he was positive didn't have any more agents, he felt a sudden jerk on his arm and was almost pulled backwards.

He stopped, looked back, and saw the girl on her knees, clutching her chest with her free hand as she gasped for air. Tiredly, Syaoran bent down and scooped her up into his arms before standing tall once again and looking to the tops of the buildings, then down the walls of both of them.

Maybe he could do it... since the wall to the right of him was brick... yeah. He could do it... It'll be a little harder, especially with the extra weight of his passenger, but he could do it. Question was, did he have enough energy to make it all the way to the top? Well, he was about to find out.

Pressing his back against the cement wall instead of the brick, he clutched the girl tightly to his chest as he used his heel to push off. Next thing he knew, he had jumped, kicked off the wall, rebounded off the opposite wall and continued this process further and further up the alley walls.

Nearing the top, he felt his legs stiffen.

_'Almost there! Don't quit on me now! Not now!'_ were his last thoughts as a last burst of adrenaline shot through his muscles, giving him enough of an energy boost to launch himself, and the girl, over the top edge of the cement walled building.

He twisted his body enough so that the impact of the roof top gravel would hit him instead of the girl, and it did. Sliding across the gravel a short ways, he felt his coat rip and tear in several places on his back and resulted in scraping his skin. Luckily for him, most of the pain was directed away from his back due to the ache in his throbbing legs. Good thing he was pretty athletic, otherwise they'd probably be dead by now...

Shouts of the men could be heard from below.

"Shit! Where'd they go!"  
"Are you sure they turned down this way!"  
"Im positive! Hey, don't look at me like it's my fault they got away!"  
"Shut-up! Both of you! We have bigger things to worry about, like finding the girl and that little shit that ran off with her!"  
"Sorry boss!"  
"Yeah, sorry!"  
"Don't 'sorry' me! Just find them!"  
"Yessir!"  
"Yes sir!"

Syaoran rolled his eyes. They seemed more like thugs than agents. Eyebrow twitching, Syaoran gasped for air, but for some strange reason, he was finding it hard to breathe.

Looking down, he noticed why. He was still clutching tightly to the girl he had just met. Funny thing was, he went through the trouble of saving her without even know her name. Or even the sound of her voice for that matter! Maybe she was mute?

He stared down at the top of her head as it lay on his chest. She was still gasping for air as well. Well, whatever. He was too tired to move. Too tired to even push her off of him.

He closed his eyes as he felt a throb on his left temple. He squinted his eyes as they barely opened, staring at the blue sky. He untangled his left hand from the girls silky hair and grazed his fingers along the area that throbbed before pulling it away.

Blood was smeared across his fingers. Great... how was he going to explain this to Xi Xi? She was going to chew him out again. Well, that was normal anyways, so no big deal.

He let his hand drop to his side with a thud as he found himself closing his eyes once again.

The sound of overhead birds chirping reached their ears, and in the distance the sound of traffic and crowds of people echoed into the sky. They stayed as they were for several minutes, too tired to move a muscle.

It was a while, when Syaoran was on the verge of sleep, when he felt a stirring on top of him. Suddenly the weight that had become unnoticeable after a while, was lifted off of his frame. The sun's warm rays that were beating on his face were suddenly cut off as a familiar shadow was cast over his features.

Cracking an eyelid open, he saw the face of the girl once again. Boy, wasn't this familiar?

"Hi..." he croaked out, tiredly, then proceeded to close his eye once again.

"Don't think I'll be going to school today... I hope Xi Xi goes easy on me. After all, it's not like I normally rescue damsels in distress... Oh, crap. But I lost my book bag after darting into traffic... Xi Xi's going to kill me for it this time for sure... this is the second time this has... " he droned, but had cut off his own sentence as he felt a tugging on his headband. Made him feel a little better to have the pressure of it taken off. But it wasn't as comfortable when he felt a warm hand touch his minor injury on his head.

"Ooouuuchhhh... that huuuuurrrtttsss..." he moaned, before rolling over onto his right side, away from her and resting his head on his arm. He grunted.

He heard the shuffling of gravel next to his head.

"Now wha...aaaahhhh..." he found his mouth saying as the girl proceeded to lift his head onto her lap. Now he felt a familiar blush return. He felt his eyebrows twitch in slight agitation.

"You know, if you want to say thank you, then just say it. I don't need any special treatment." he growled as he pushed himself up with his arm.

The world was spinning as he sat up suddenly. He blinked a few times to clear his head before everything returned to normal.

"...Thank... you..." came a small voice from behind. He looked back over his shoulder, a small look of disbelief written on his face. He noticed a small blush heat up across her face, nothing compared to his, mind you.

A small grin made it's way to his lips as he turned his head back around, shrugging.

"It was nothing. After all, it was the least I could do for a woman in distress."

Getting to his feet, but not without wincing, he extended his hand again and lifted her to her feet. Upon doing this, he watched a shiver run up her body as she made a squeamish face. He held his laughter back from the sight. Funny.

"C'mon. I guess we should get going..." he paused for a moment. Wait a tick... going? Going where? He looked at the girl as she took a step on the sharp gravel and made another squeamish face. She continued this process slowly, repeating the step followed by the face. Apparently the gravel was hurting her feet.

Syaoran scoffed. "That's what you get for not wearing any shoes. Like I usually say, 'You reap what you sow'". All the while, he was still unsure of where to go. He couldn't just take her home and announce that she needed a place to stay for a while. Well, at least, that's what he thought. He wasn't even sure if she knew where she was!

Oh... Xi Xi was going to be furious...

DING! A light bulb went off. Of course! There was that extra apartment Xi Xi and he used to live in, but moved out of... They had planned to use it for a storage compartment a few blocks from their apartment they were living in but never filled it up completely... he could probably keep her there. Well, temporarily anyways.

He walked over to the roof door of the building and waited for the girl to catch up. She was going to have to suffer and walk on the gravel to the door. Hell, he was tired of carrying her and dragging her all over hell and back! She needed to learn to carry her own weight or be left behind! After all, that's how the world worked.

"Hurry up, slowpoke!" he shouted towards her.

An expression of determination crossed her features as she quickened her pace, making even more laughable faces in the process.

Well., today was going to be a great day!

To be continued...

A/N: So, how was it? I hope I did alright... I felt like I went a bit cheap on the details, but then again, im my own worst critic. I don't know any Chinese names, and im too lazy to look it up, so I just went with Xi Xi. I think that's actually 'thank you' in Chinese. Funny if it is. Anyways, story is going to go a little fast paced from here. I wont rush it or anything, but I don't want to drawl this out excessively. Sometimes I tend to do that kinda junk. AU ficcy, as you all know, and im pretty sure you all have an idea as to what Sakura is or a general idea. She plays several roles in the story line. (Does she come on a bit strong? Or outgoing? Yes, dense, but she'll get over that quickly. Like, in the next chapter.)

But what im really excited to get to is Syaoran's past in the story. It's what the story is revolved around basically. Ack! Please review any thoughts! Makes me feel like my work is paying off over here! Also, please ignore any misspellings. Im waaaaayyyy too tired to care about those right now. Maybe someday I'll go back and fix them up. But right now, I need sleep. Job interview early tomorrow morning. Ciao! (PS. Sorry to all of you who were really into Birdcage. Im going to update that! I swear!)


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